Politics

The New York Times is reporting that U.S. Senate Democrats will likely seat Roland Burris, Illinois Governer Rod Blagojevich’s pick to replace Barack Obama. Changing course, Senate Democrats emerged from a meeting with Senate appointee Roland Burris on Wednesday and set forth the legal steps under which they’re willing to welcome him into the Senate […]

Based on the anemic associate bonuses recently announced by Cravath, one might think that the firm is hurting. We hear that work at CSM is a little slow — and that there may be some anxiety over the staggering cost of the firm’s $900 million lease at Worldwide Plaza. But don’t shed tears for Cravath […]

Some have wondered: Where was star litigator Dan Webb at Governor Rod Blagojevich’s bond hearing? High-powered Winston & Strawn litigators Dan Webb and Bradley Lerman were not at Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s side when he appeared at a bond hearing on Tuesday. Blagojevich instead tapped Sheldon Sorosky, a lawyer from two-partner Chicago litigation shop Kaplan […]

Yesterday, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich made news with “dangerous” threats about halting all state business with Bank of America until the Republic Windows & Doors fiasco is sorted out. Today, Blagojevich learned the old rule: “Let he who is not under investigation for ‘staggering’ corruption cast the first stone.” The Chicago Tribune (which is still […]

* Barack Obama has promised to close Guantanamo Bay, but what is going to happen to the most dangerous inmates? Should they be released anyway? What legal basis can the U.S. use to keep them captive? [Bloomberg.com] * Roman Polanski — the Academy Award-winning director of Rosemary’s Baby, who admitted to having sex with a […]

Amid all of the wailing and gnashing about who President Bush might pardon during his last days in office, today’s grant of 14 requests failed to live up to any of the hype. The New York Times reports: Mr. Bush has been relatively sparing in his use of pardons compared to past presidents, and the […]

Newsweek is reporting that Covington & Burling partner Eric Holder will be picked as the new U.S. Attorney General: Holder, who served as deputy attorney general during the Clinton administration, still has to undergo a formal “vetting” review by the Obama transition team before the selection is final and is publicly announced, said one of […]

New lawyers to lead the nation are sending in their résumés. Already, UC Berkeley School of Law Dean Christopher Edley has received a choice position as part of Obama’s transition advisory board. (I wonder if he’s accepting resumes from his students?) Here’s an interesting choice for Edley and the rest of the transition team that […]

The National Law Journal reports on the many, many lawyers who busted their tail (on both sides) making America a barely functional democracy: In Ohio, New Hampshire and Virginia, lawyers scrambled to file court documents in election-related lawsuits. But in most states, lawyers were working to prevent litigation by fielding calls at centers housed at […]

Obama’s tax policy is finally revealed: President Obama and the new Democratic Congress face unprecedented fiscal policy challenges. First, they must endeavor to restore public confidence and return our economy to a period of growth. Here one can only hope that any new economic stimulus is well-targeted and genuinely temporary. Extending unemployment coverage and benefits […]

A few hours before the polls close, Virginia continues to be a disaster of disenfranchisement. Voting machine breakdowns at dozens of sites, affecting voters in all parts of the state, suggest that Virginia election officials were woefully unprepared for the massive turnout that everybody predicted. Right now, Election Protection lawyers are concerned that multiple precincts […]

Remember back in 2000 when Palm Beach County’s infamous “butterfly ballot” caused confused voters to vote for Pat Buchanan when they intended to vote for Al Gore? Do you think they fixed it? Check out today’s Palm Beach County November, 2008 election ballot below. What the hell is that? They’re not trying to confuse voters […]

The TV guys are still focused on Florida and Ohio. Always fighting the last war. So far, things are generally holding up well in those states. The early election craziness for 2008 seems to be in Virginia and Pennsylvania. We documented some of the problems in VA earlier today, but many of the same problems […]

In 2000 it was Florida, in 2004 it was Ohio. Could 2008 be the year that Virginia is the state that embarrasses democracy in America? According to a conference call that is still ongoing with Election Protection (the nation’s largest nonpartisan voter protection coalition) right now voting in Virginia is in pretty bad shape. There […]

As many of you know, there is a flyer going around Virginia telling voters that Republicans vote today, Democrats vote Wednesday. We can argue whether voters who don’t know when election day is deserve to vote at all. But these tricks are also being used to “confuse” students. At George Mason University, the Provost felt […]

The Chicago office of Kirkland & Eliis is taking an extraordinary step for a major law firm. They are closing early: The Chicago office will have an early closure tomorrow, November 4, to ensure the safety of our occupants as large crowds are anticipated in the area. Senator Obama is expected to be staying at […]

We received 836 responses to Monday’s ATL / Lateral Link survey on whether you’ll be volunteering your services on Election Day, and the results are pretty remarkable. Over 40% of practicing attorneys who took the survey said that they would be helping out:   * 23% will be working as election monitors.   * 11% […]

Breaking from CNBC, CNN, and NYT, Alaska Senator Ted Stevens has been found guilty on all seven counts of making false statements on Senate disclosure forms. More to come. Update (4:24): The jury started to deliberate Wednesday. On Monday jurors noted a discrepancy between the indictment and the evidence. According to CNN: The indictment accuses […]

Does the legal academy suffer from a dearth of ideological diversity? It’s a question raised by the defection of prominent conservative law professors — including Doug Kmiec and now Charles Fried (pictured), who both held top positions in the Justice Department under Ronald Reagan — to the candidacy of Barack Obama. From a post on […]

Earlier this month, an ATL / Lateral Link survey found that 86% of you were talking about politics in the workplace. And 18% of you reported that a fellow associate had tried to convince you to vote for their favorite candidate. But are politics just seeping into your workplace, or will you be taking your […]